Kim Smith Looking Forward

Kim Smith has only really had two injuries in her running career. Unfortunately, one of them occurred one of the sport's biggest stages, the Boston Marathon, when the stakes were the highest, with Smith threatening to run away with a wire-to-wire victory that would have burned itself into the annals of the race from its sheer audacity.

Unfortunately, Smith, 29, who holds almost every New Zealand distance record on the books, was laid low by a balky calf muscle some 15 miles into the race. TV viewers straining to catch a glimpse of the distant chase pack suddenly saw her stumble as her left calf spasmed, then watched in horrible empathy as the cramp worsened, bringing her stride down to a shuffle and then a complete standstill as she attempted to stretch it out. Although she resumed running, it was at a reduced pace, and she was soon caught by her pursuers before eventually dropping out near the 30K mark.

"My calf felt a little tight before the start, but nothing too significant," she said Wednesday from her home in Providence, just down I-95 from the site of Monday's heartbreak. "But around 15 miles it just seized up all of a sudden, no warning. I tried to keep running, figuring it might work itself out, even changed by stride and tried to run more on my heels, but it didn't go away. It hurt, but not that bad — it actually felt worse the next day."

An MRI revealed that Smith had suffered a torn soleus, the small, lower calf muscle that lies beneath the larger gastrocnemius. "There are three grades of tears and mine's a grade II," said Smith, who suffered a partial tear of her Achilles tendon in the right leg five years ago.

"Fortunately I seem to be a pretty quick healer, so hopefully I'll be back soon, Smith adds. "I'm going to take some time off and see how it feels, but I don't think I'll need surgery or anything."

Smith, who is coached by Ray Treacy, doesn't feel her front-running tactics contributed to the injury.

"My first mile might have been a bit quick, but I was running exactly the pace I wanted," says Smith, who owns a 2:25:21 PR from last year's London Marathon. With the tailwind, it might have even been a bit easy. I went through halfway in just under 71 minutes, and when you look at the winning time (2:22:36 by Caroline Kilel) it wasn't unreasonable. I'd done about eight or nine runs on the course in training and I knew just what it should feel like."

It's possible that the soleus tear actually occurred as a result of continuing for three miles after the initial cramp, but Smith doesn't regret her decision.

"Sometimes a cramp will go away fairly quickly," she says. "I was in great shape, running the race I wanted, and I didn't want to stop right away. It didn't feel like I was doing anything really bad to the leg."

When Smith resumes training next month, she has no plans to race on the track in Europe, but will instead be focused on a fall marathon. "I'm not sure which one yet [she was fifth at the ING-New York City Marathon last November]. I'm not going to run it at the World Championships. It's probably going to be hot and humid in Daegu [South Korea] so conditions won't be good for running fast.

Other highlights of Smith's career include a fifth-place finish in the 10,000m at the 2007 world championships in Osaka, Japan, and a seventh-place showing at the 2009 world half marathon championships in England.

Being New Zealand's fastest marathoner gives Smith a freedom her U.S. competitors don't have.

"I don't have to run one in the spring like they do, so I can run one this fall," she said. "Maybe it will be a little easier with the American girls sitting out."

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